by Oxford, Rain
“No.” We hear another howl, much closer this time. I slapped my hand over Sammy’s mouth when he tried to howl back. Dylan put his pentagram, which was still glowing, back on.
“I have heard a howl like that, but only in movies.”
“What made that sound in movies?” I asked.
One of the creatures entered our limited light from behind a massive tree. Covered in thick auburn fur, it did have the general body shape of a draxuni, but I was thrown off by the proportionally larger head and the fact that on four legs, its head came to my chest. Its ears were folded back in anger and it was starling; revealing very large, very sharp teeth. A second one jumped onto a huge, fallen tree to tower over us. This one had fur as black as the shadows and all I could see clearly were its eyes and teeth.
“Werewolves,” Dylan answered.
“Is it too late to run?” I asked.
“I’d say so. Time to fight. Don’t let them scratch or bite you. In the movies, if a werewolf bites you or scratches you, it would spread the infection. I mean, I always thought it would be cool to shift into a wolf, but dragons are much better.”
“Well, I could bite you and see if you turn into a dragon.”
He looked at me and shook his head. “I’d be more likely to turn into a turnip.”
“I’m willing to risk it.”
Apparently, the brown draxuni-like creature did not like being ignored, because it snarled and leapt right in front of us. It opened its mouth wider to show off its teeth, and Rojan roared. The wolf was asserting her dominance, and I have no idea how I suddenly knew it was a she. Rojan was bigger and badder and she would not get away with that. My eyes, teeth, and claws shifted and I was snarling before I could stop myself. She stopped snarling for a moment to stare in surprise, then she tried again. I took a step towards her and let my fire rise to the surface. Smoke seeped from my mouth and nostrils as I growled. It was all Rojan in charge.
The wolf before me started to change; her body reshaped with sickening cracks and crunches and her fur receded until I was looking at a beautiful woman… who was completely naked. Her hair was the same color as the wolf’s fur and her eyes were a cold, bright, electric blue. She was only marginally shorter than me and had a body of a woman who did physical labor every day.
The fact that she shifted from her beast to her person was a sign of submission, but when she looked me straight in the eyes, I knew she wasn’t submitting completely. She was testing me. Rojan purred inside, but I still growled until she finally looked away.
The other wolf was not deterred and tried to use the distraction to advance on Dylan. I passed the woman to intercept the other wolf, but Dylan purposely got in the way. “You’re holding Sammy. Don’t pick a fight just yet.”
I snarled at this wolf, who stopped just a couple steps in front of Dylan. I wanted to pass Dylan the child and attack, but Dylan wasn’t supposed to hold him. Surely it wouldn’t hurt for Dylan to hold him another minute so I can kill the challenging beast.
Yes, kill him, Rojan jumped at the idea.
You can’t just kill him. The wolf is also a person.
A person who challenges us. He threatens Dylan and Sammy. He should die, Rojan argued.
The woman said something in a beautiful, rather jagged-sounding language. The wolf didn’t stop snarling, but he backed away a few steps. Other wolves moved in to surround us when the black wolf turned and disappeared into the forest. The woman indicated we should follow her as she started in the direction the black wolf had gone.
“What do you think?” I asked Dylan.
He shrugged. “They want to take us to the wolf pack, where we could be ambushed by hundreds of werewolves, and the black one isn’t even afraid of a dragon.”
His words irritated Rojan and I couldn’t stop the dragon’s response from leaving my mouth. “He had better fear me lest I will burn him alive and eat him while he still begs for mercy.”
Dylan stared at me. “Nice to meet you, Rojan. Such a lovely image. I have to say, I don’t think werewolf is on the menu tonight.”
I restrained Rojan this time. “It will be if they keep making Rojan angry. Honestly, I don’t want to be picking them from my teeth, so I really hope they give up quickly. Rojan is much stronger and would very much like to kill them all.”
“Except the woman,” Dylan smirked. We followed after her.
I tried to look innocent, even as Rojan rumbled. She might be worthy to live.
I rolled my eyes. “Being part dragon may or may not make it more difficult for me to find a companion, but that does not mean I am willing to settle for a person who turns into an animal.”
Dylan’s eyes widened dramatically. “So racist!” He was joking.
Companion, never. A pet, perhaps, Rojan said.
I groaned and put my face in my hands. One of the wolves behind us snapped in warning when we slowed down a little, and I snapped right back. The wolf wasn’t expecting it and jumped away. Rojan liked that.
“You’re getting pretty comfortable letting Rojan have the reigns,” Dylan said.
“I guess I’m used to him already.” I was starting to realize Rojan was as much part of me as my hand. Except when his reaction would be inappropriate, why would I prevent him from responding or even talking?
Rojan heard my thoughts and purred. He liked the freedom.
We came to the end of the jungle and found ourselves on a hill overlooking a village settled into a valley. About thirty small cabins littered the village with several small gardens placed throughout. There were no separate yards or territories, which I expected from the people with such wild beasts.
“Wow,” Dylan said, peering at the sky with fascination.
Billions of stars and spilled across the night sky, but it was the moon that dominated. The moon was huge and had colored bands across it like a planet… or like a beautiful stone. Rojan moaned. Something about that moon made him feel longing.
As if that cleared anything up.
I felt the wolves behind me change to people, but I didn’t bother looking. Rojan would warn me if I needed to pay attention. They started talking and got louder when we ignored them to the point where they were annoying.
“Do you think they realized yet that we don’t speak their language?” Dylan asked.
“I doubt it. They seem a bit savage and uncivilized; they are probably slow to learn as well. Here they are acting like they’re in charge, when Rojan can burn them like steaks.”
“Steaks? Are you hungry? You keep referring to them as food.”
“I am, actually. I just think they would taste pretty bad. Rojan is willing to test that theory.”
“Hypothesis. It’s a hypothesis. A scientific, unproven, educated guess is a hypothesis. A theory is a hypothesis proven time and again without fail. Since you have never eaten a werewolf before, it can’t be a theory,” Dylan corrected. He did that a lot.
The woman turned back when we wouldn’t continue following them down the hill. She said something, her voice higher and warmer. She was trying to encourage us to follow her, probably with words she thought were very cleaver. Rojan chuckled like an adult watching a child do something ridiculous.
“Mordon…” Dylan said.
I reacted in time to steady him. He clutched his head and squeezed his eyes closed. “Are you still sick?” I asked. It was a difficult concept for me that someone could be sick when I couldn’t smell sickness on them, but I wasn’t a Guardian and didn’t know what it felt like.
“My energy is doing something and it’s making me dizzy.”
I let my eyes shift for the hundredth time today and saw his magic responding to something. It looked as if he was doing a normal spell, but his god energy was working instead of the nominal energy. What it was doing I had no idea.
He opened his eyes at the same time mine shifted back and they flickered with the same green glow like when he held the pentagram. As quickly as it had started, his eyes returned to normal. Just as t
he woman started talking again, Dylan winced.
“Oh, no,” he moaned.
“What?”
“I know what my magic did. I mean, I only thought it for a second; I didn’t even actually want it.” He sent the woman a glare, which stopped her in her tracks. She was probably not often glared at in the middle of sweet talking someone.
“Want what?”
“I blame you, Sammy. I thought that it was annoying not knowing what they were saying. Apparently I can learn languages magically like your kid… or maybe it’s just translating. When she spoke again, I knew what she was saying. I heard her words in their foreign language, but I knew what the words meant.”
“That ability should not be bad, especially for a Guardian. Don’t be so quick to worry,” I encouraged.
He already feels he is a freak; this will not help him right now. Your friend is about one new ability away from becoming self-destructive.
I nearly brushed what Rojan was saying off until I realized what he said. What do you mean?
He feels his magic is growing too quickly and he is becoming too dangerous. He wants to be more human and is thinking of how to do it; therefore, he will avoid using his magic even as it builds up. This will lead to a lack of control. If he accidently harms anyone because of it, his regret would be catastrophic. He needs to continue using magic during this delicate time in his development when his magic is most malleable. I can assure you, he will continue to grow more powerful whether he uses his magic or not.
Why? Why is he getting more powerful?
You should pay more attention. His magic is learning. Every obstacle he faces, every time he runs from the demon, every fear he has makes him grow stronger. His magic is growing to accommodate. If he only uses it to heal, his magic will only learn to heal. If he uses it to attack, his magic will become volatile and difficult to control.
Why didn’t you tell us this before?
You should have realized this. I know this because I am using the senses you have always had.
“You need to pay attention,” Dylan said.
“Rojan is paying attention for me. I don’t want to be trapped in their village. I don’t like the aura I get from them, and I haven’t even seen them with my dragon eyes. Their intentions are sneaky.”
“I know. We need to save this world and then get out of here. I think I finally understand how to travel the worlds. We should be able to leave at any time.”
“Then heal it and let us leave now.”
“I don’t know about using magic in front of these strangers. Humans are afraid of magic, how do we know these people aren’t? I’m a Guardian; I can’t just terrify a whole population of people like that.”
I growled in frustration, but I knew he wouldn’t change his mind. While he had been talking, the people behind us were arguing. They were pretty irritating, especially since none of them seemed to care at all they were standing around in dusk, on a hill top, completely naked. Not one of them wore a strip of anything. There were only two other women, neither of which looked as pretty as the one who had challenged me.
Rojan and I were able to single out their leader by who yelled the loudest and was the biggest. Rojan said he was the black wolf.
“They just realized we can’t speak their language,” Dylan told me quietly. “They think we must be from a land far away, and they are clueless as to what we are.” He looked at me. “I think this might be a world of shifters. They are discussing what our beasts could be. You showed them your claws and teeth, but they don’t know what you are. They can’t identify us by smell, and it’s making them really edgy.”
“But they think we’re of this world. Don’t let on that you learned their language.”
“Why not? That might help us pretend to be a native.”
“Because they might say something in front of us that they wouldn’t if they knew you understood them. They might reveal their evil plans,” I insisted.
Rojan agreed, but was hoping they would misbehave so he could eat them. I just hoped Rojan wasn’t serious, because I didn’t want to eat anyone.
“They’re talking about the dark. It’s going to be dark soon and they are afraid of it. They’re arguing now about whether to leave us to die or force us to go. I think we should follow them for now.”
I sighed. “Alright. Pet, you can follow us in front,” I said to the woman. I hadn’t meant to say it so rudely. Rojan had decided that she would be our pet and we had to train her to be a good one. She looked startled that I was talking to her. “Go, pet!” I demanded. She jumped a little before taking off down the hill.
We followed behind at a more leisurely pace until she slowed down. Rojan was pleased that she was so easily trained. When the man who had been the black wolf tried to pull in front of us, I growled. He growled back and stepped in front of me. That was not going to pass with Rojan.
Dylan took Sammy with a sigh as I faced off against the fool.
The man was faintly taller than me and a fair amount more muscular, but it was his wolf, not his body that he fought with. His wolf was challenging my dragon and Rojan would win hands down. My eyes, teeth, and claws shifted as my fire rose to the surface.
With my eyes in dragon form, I could clearly see his aura. He was not the most immoral person I have met, but he was driven by the desire for power. In fact, he had done some horrible things to get where he was today. He was a beast all the way through and would not hesitate to kill, but he was a leader willing to fight for the lives of his pack members. If he would back down, Rojan would let him live.
I could feel the wolf in him display his dominance, and I could feel the moment the beast realized that he was up against a stronger opponent. The man was clearly confused, even as he stepped away and lowered his eyes. Neither he nor his wolf knew what Rojan was, but they knew that we were stronger.
I took Sammy back and Dylan laughed as we continued down the hill. “You and Rojan make a pretty funny team. It’s probably not every day that the werewolf alpha meets someone bigger than him.”
“What is a werewolf?” I asked.
“A wolf shifter. They look more like wolves in beast form than the draxuni do, but these guys are much, much bigger than wolves. I don’t think wolves are the only type of beasts people shift into, though. They kept discussing what our beasts were. More likely, they are a wolf pack and people all over the world shift into different animals.
I growled when one of the less dominant males got too close. He was more curious than anything, but Rojan didn’t want anyone that close to our backs. Sammy hung over my arm to get a better look at them, then twisted around to try and reach into the baby bag, but I caught his searching hands just before he got the baby wipes.
“Look at that; you’re teaching him to be violent,” Dylan said.
“Me? He knew how to throw things when we met him.”
“I can’t believe that was less than two weeks ago,” he said. He was right; it felt like we had been on this mission for months, when it had actually only been days.
We reached the village a few minutes before dark. The shifters behind us broke up and went into their separate cabins, whereas the auburn-headed woman led us to a cabin and indicated we should enter.
“You first, pet,” I said. I hadn’t meant for my voice to be so growly, but she darted inside.
Dylan shook his head. “I hope you make a better boyfriend than pet-owner, or you’re going to die alone.”
“She made Rojan angry when she challenged him, and he hasn’t forgiven her yet. He wants to train her. I wonder what he would do if you challenged him,” I said.
Dylan shrugged. “We probably won’t find out. I’m not out to challenge anyone.” He went inside and I followed. The only response Rojan felt was the irritation that Dylan went in first, not because that was a dominant move, but because Dylan needed to be protected from my pet and should not be alone with her.
Dylan was peaceful down to his soul, and coupled with his Guardian-dri
ven need to help people, he was liable to walk into a dangerous situation at every turn. He needed to be protected. As powerful as he was, as horrible as his childhood was, and as dangerous as a Guardian’s life was, Dylan’s first instinct wasn’t self-preservation. He would risk his life to protect everyone else, because that was his nature, so I would make it my job to protect him.
The cabin was pretty basic. There was a bed to the far side with a window above it. On the left wall was a kitchenette, complete with a small wood-burning stove and a counter. A wooden table sat in the middle of the room. Rugs littered the floor. The woman stood back, watching me for approval. There was not much to approve of, but it was warm and the colors were not repulsive.
“Mama, hungry,” Sammy said. I looked at him. He put on a brave face, even as his tiny stomach growled.
“We’ll find something soon,” I said. “We should go to Earth next,” I told Dylan. He nodded. Really, I wanted him to hurry up and heal Earth because I knew he was feeling worse and worse. Whatever was happening to his book to make those names disappear, it was impacting Dylan’s health.
The woman ran out of the room. Rojan bristled at her acting without permission, but didn’t feel she was worth going after.
“Your pet just escaped,” Dylan supplied helpfully. I shrugged, just as the woman ran back inside. She carried a small wicker basket and set it on the table, then backed up. “Interesting,” Dylan said.
“What?” I asked, sniffing the basket from across the room. I could smell bread, vegetables, and cooked meat.
“They are all terrified of the dark, but she just ran out there to get food for you. She risked it because she wanted to please you. Not much of a wolf, is she?”
“She realizes who is in charge. Good, pet,” I praised. She didn’t understand my words, but my pleased tone was universal and she smiled. “I smell no poison or toxins or anything wrong with the food.” I went to the basket and pulled out some of the bread. I gave it one more careful sniff before handing it to Sammy, then got some of the roasted meat for myself.
Dylan pulled out a vegetable and handed it to Sammy, who made a face as if Dylan had handed him a severed hand. Dylan had just bit into the meat when Sammy’s vegetable plopped out of his hand and landed on the floor.
